Trick or Treat!
another crazy month - will tell it to you in pictures...

the fun:
1. i went to my first ever rock concert!! and it was really cool that i saw Weezer b/c it's probably the only cd i know of any rock band. my brother's been a fan forEVER and passed along the blue cd many years ago. he had even given me a weezer t-shirt - so i was all decked out as a real fan. =) lots and lots of fun - and they're better live than on their cd!

2. read a book about Queen Elizabeth I. totally fascinating time in history! does reading a book count as fun? haha...

3. d & i took a trip to visit one of his bestfriends currently stationed in Lompoc in the Central Coast (the area featured in the movie Sideways). we had a fun time seeing the sights...

in Solvang - very quaint but also touristy...

at the first of 3 wineries. this one was in a small town called Los Olivos. each winery had a completely different feel - this one was in the backyard garden and really cute. our 2nd one was a lot bigger and our 3rd winery was a small one on a ranch owned by 3 sisters and just opened 2 years ago. i liked all the individual personalities of each... although all i figured out was that i like the girly white wines and that i can't handle too much alcohol...

the traumas:
1. the Rays lost! being from Tampa, d's always been a huge fan - and i got sucked into the playoffs and world series... very fun being that involved in sports but heartbreaking too...

2. Astrocamp. it's still fun getting to know the kids in a setting outside school, but this being my 3rd year to go, it was more tiring... of course, it didn't help that this 3-day fieldtrip was sandwiched in between the Weezer concert and the Lompoc trip.

3. my small grp is splitting! this actually a good thing b/c our #'s are way too high for real intimacy, but there is always a grieving process that goes along w/ splitting...

@ our Wine & Tapas Night (last hurrah farewell party)

3. M Sunday. haha, this wasn't a "trauma" and was actually one of the biggest and neatest things i've ever put together, but the stress of it did make me break down into tears one night... the goal of the event was for our committee to make our congregation aware of all the M's we support and all the projects we've been a part of this year, etc. and i really do think we succeeded! but whew...

we met on Saturday to prepare inserts and make these boards... what was supposed to be a 2 hr mtg ended up lasting 6 hrs!! THANK YOU MY CTTE MEMBERS for sticking it out till we were done!!!
haha, i'd been assigning science fair for so many years and had completely forgotten how long it takes to assemble these darn boards!! i'll pity my students more this year...

this is a portion of my awesome, amazing ctte! and though M Sunday was quite a lot of work, it was fun bonding over it together!

the Halloween:
and as usual at school, we dressed up... just a couple fotos (you can see the rest on facebook)

me & the tin man

and several of the staff are mommies who themed their costumes w/ their babies. mrs. c is cooking her poor lobster son. =)

another month gone. is it already November tomorrow??

hard times...

haha, not really - it's all in my head, but it has been a rough month in my head...

in this, my 8th year of teaching, i still had anxiety nightmares during the first month of school. why? why? and then, as always, i got sick at the beg of the year. and i couldn't even stay home because of the crazy heat wave that hit LA this past week. i went to work just to be in an air-conditioned place because i didn't want to drown in my own sweat at home. awwww, poor me! another night, i got covered in mosquito bites - in LA? there's no mosquitoes in LA but i have the mysterious bites on my arms and legs. AND i found out my feet have low arches...now i have to wear these special insoles in my shoes!

haha, but i'm just being ridiculous. most of the month, other than the nightmares and sickness has been fine. in fact, i've had some fun times:

another Hollywood Bowl night:

my small grp at the Sound-of-Music-Sing-along!
yes, we paid $20 to simply watch the movie on a big screen, but it was with over 17,000 other people and there's something absolutely priceless about singing the Sound of Music songs at the top of your lungs with over 17,000 other people! and i do mean TOP-OF-YOUR-LUNGS singing!

per tradition, there was a costume contest before the show, and it was so much fun to see! there are the men dressed as nuns, the girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes, the brown paper packages tied up with string, and then there are always some totally new ones. these are the winners of the contest:

3rd place: the opening scene to the movie - a spinning Maria on the hill with a helicopter overhead. 2nd place: a needle pulling thread. 1st place (they won a cruise trip!): 8 little asian kids who represented all the notes of the scale. but i also liked the "clock with the absurd little bird" and "drop of golden sun."

on one of the wkeds, D and I visited the Reagan Presidential Library. i hadn't realized how many monumentous events happened during his term. what an incredible man.

holding the President's hand...

i also attended the 8th baby shower of '08 and got to meet more of the babies whose showers i attended earlier this year. exciting stuff!!

it never ceases to amaze me - the miracle of life.
and just as amazing, we got to witness a baptism at the church retreat this past wked. the retreat was good, but my favorite part was seeing this man surrender his life to Christ. it's a miracle b/c "repenting is death" and who would choose that on their own? but it's beautiful when someone finally admits he doesn't have it all together, but can finally rest in the fact that he doesn't have to do it all. it's a beautiful life.